Rose

Rose is an American Air Transport Auxiliary pilot and a developing poet. Throughout the novel, she finds herself using poetry and writing as well as her ability to fly as ways to cope with the difficult and painful situations she faces. For example, when she is receiving the Fünfundzwanzig, or 25 lashings, before she is sent to Ravensbrück, the Nazis force her to count each lash, but as she is losing consciousness, she recites a poem from Edna St. Vincent Millet to comfort herself. During her time at Ravensbrück, she creates and memorizes poems, without the ability to write them down, to help her process what she is experiencing. Her friends at the camp also find comfort in her poems, and often ask her to tell them a poem or a story. Her stories usually revolve around herself or Nick rescuing them all in a plane...